A Shopping Trip for the Ages

Jan. 19, 2016

To the Editor:

“Be Happy: Think About Your Death,” by Arthur C. Brooks (Sunday Review, Jan. 10), reminded me of one of the most interesting shopping trips I have made: to buy my own grave.

My preconception was that we would conduct the transaction in a remote office, but no, one visited the actual plot by golf cart, and I was able to stand directly on the spot where I will someday be interred. It was both eerie and reassuring, imagining my middle-age children pulling up on the road in some type of Jetsons vehicle. The experience did not end there.

My cemetery salesman announced, “Now on to the casket room!” and so on, culminating with writing the inscription to be put on my gravestone. In the end, it was an experience that motivates me in life and was successful in breaking through the final denial.

LORETTA Y. HOWITT

Pasadena, Calif.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 24 of the New York edition with the headline: ­A Shopping Trip for the Ages. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe